If you’re over 21, that means a couple of things. In Israel, it means you’ve probably already finished your army service, so congratulations. In America, it means that you can legally drink…congratulations once again. For the intents and purposes of this post, it means that you’re old enough to remember when Motorola was the king of mobile phones.

This also means, that you have a vivid memory of everyone you know, using one of those stylish Motorola StarTAC phones, back in 1996:

You definitely also remember the 2004 introduction of the sleek and sexy Motorola RAZR, when you just had to have one:

This being the case, a fair question is: what has happened to Motorola now?

In a word; they’ve disappeared. Although the company is still kicking and hard at work making mobile phones, compared to Motorola’s immense popularity back in its heyday, it’s quite shocking they are rarely heard from.

BlackBerry, (owned by RIM), was founded in 1984. Its mega popular devices have been lovingly and not-so-lovingly given nicknames throughout the years including BlueBerry, LackBerry and others, but none of this endangered the world’s obsession with their CrackBerry devices:

But recently, unfortunately, RIM is beginning to fade as well.

Although it is difficult to put my finger on one single cause for the downfall of both of these mobile phone giants; in the cell phone (now smart phone), industry, the name of the game is innovation.

Despite the importance for a company to have a trademark “look” and recognizable “image”, both Motorola and BlackBerry are suffering due to overly rigid adherence to traditional phone designs. For years, Motorola refused to abandon its clamshell configuration; while BlackBerry’s once revolutionary QWERTY keyboard design, is now becoming obsolete.

If BlackBerry wants to avoid becoming the next Motorola, it must quickly learn from the past. Both companies’ stock prices are characterized by a classic growth and peak pattern that reached a real high point, but has since toppled downward.

Blackberry should carefully study the two stock charts above, to reposition their course and navigate the future.

Jesse Braunstein is a Junior at NYU double majoring in Economics and Psychology. Jesse joined Madison Technology and SheBytes.com in May 2011 as a summer intern. Jesse has been instrumental in utilizing his expanding background to come up with creative perspectives on the Marketing, Advertising and Business Development initiatives at both Madison Technology and SheBytes.com. Jesse’s outlook stems from an Economics and Psychology education and a deep understanding of the individual and how the individual acts within and interacts with the market. Follow Jesse on Twitter and Facebook. Check out his About.me.